Birthday Present
by CelestialLoverxxx
Summary: Why was he avoiding her? Why was he forgetting her? Why was he no longer the boy she had met in that dark alley on a rainy day? Lucy should have guessed the answer...she knew it all along anyway.


**Alright, I decided to another one-shot, besides the RoguexLucy one too! Like I mentioned in my previous one-shot, I am not good at them, and I'm trying to improve. So, if this is not good, I apologize. I would be very happy if anyone liked this though.**

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**Birthday Present **

It had stopped raining, but the sky was still dark gray. Lucy looked up at the sky and sighed; it was reflecting her mood at that moment. There was just the slight sound of drizzling and the wind blowing occasionally as two pairs of boots sloshed along the streets.

Her friend looked at her with concern; "Lucy, I'm sure he's there today. Please cheer up a bit! It's your birthday after all!"

Lucy Heartfilia tilted her head up and forced a smile at Levy. The reason why she was so preoccupied even on her most important day of the year was Sting Eucliffe—her boyfriend.

He been so distant with Lucy lately, and so reluctant with everything she suggested, that she had begun to worry now. It was like he was irritated with her, or bored even...

"Well, he did promise last week that he would be at my place today, so you're probably right." Lucy said, trying to reassure herself a bit. It was so stupid, why was she getting all worked up because Sting was not talking too much? He could be busy too!

Levy nodded, relieved. Just as they were about reach Lucy's neighbourhood, Levy's phone began to ring. She picked it up, had a quick conversation, and then explained to Lucy with dismay; "Gajeel needs my help for the school club! I had told him I would be there, but I forgot. I'm so sorry Luce!"

Lucy shook her head and smiled; "No big deal. See you later! Thanks for the book."

Her friend raced off down the slippery streets, while the blonde walked along to her house, lost in thought. The house would usually be empty, since after leaving her father, no one really stayed with her. Sometimes Levy or Sting would come over, but recently it had only been the blue-haired bookworm.

She suddenly felt excited as she reached; Sting was probably hiding inside or something, waiting to pounce on her and wish her a happy birthday. Or maybe he had actually mustered up some courage and tried to cook something. Lucy giggled at the possibility of him doing that, and felt much lighter.

She took out her house key and inserted it in the keyhole. When she came in, the house was deserted. She looked around a bit, before getting slightly annoyed.

"Hey, Sting! I'm here!" she called. Maybe he had not heard the door open? However, after checking all the rooms and calling for another ten minutes she was certain Sting was not in her house.

"He must be coming later or something," Lucy muttered to herself. She went up to her room to write a few more chapters of her novel, placing the gifts her friends had given her at school on her desk. It was a pity Sting did not go to the same school as her; then it would so much easier.

She remembered how she had first met him with a smile as she tapped the pages with her pencil. It had been a rainy day just like this, and Lucy had been running home— getting drenched by the second—from the bookstore.

All the nearest bookstores had been closed, so she had gone a long way from her house, and even while running there had been a fair distance left. So she had taken a sharp turn to her right and into an alley, where the roof of a house shielded her from the rain.

But she hadn't been alone, and Lucy still remembered the weird conversation;

A blonde boy had scowled at her and walked out of the shadows when she arrived, and had said a little too loudly; "This is my place to hide!"

Lucy had staggered back in shock at the sudden sound, and almost dropped her new book.

"Did you have to scare me like that?" she had demanded.

"But this is the only private place I get, and you are interrupting!"

"Well I'm sorry, but I was getting drenched! How come you don't have an umbrella?"

"I do actually."

To Lucy's surprise, he had somehow tugged a black umbrella loose from where he had managed to swing the handle on a piece of uneven, jutting out brick from the wall that Lucy had been leaning against.

"Why aren't you using it then?" she had asked curiously.

"I like the rain. You can take it if you want."

Lucy's eyes widened and she beamed; "Really? I can? But it's yours, and I don't know where you live, so how can I give it back?"

"You don't need to give it back. Oh and that's my house, right there!" Sting had pointed to a small house two buildings away from where they were standing.

She had taken the umbrella, given a quick, awkward hug to her new friend, and raced down the street after seeing where Sting lived from a distance.

Lucy laughed softly to herself now, and closed her novel in frustration. There was no point; she just didn't feel like writing.

She waited patiently till almost evening, when there was a soft knock on her door. She jumped up with glee and relief and dashed down to open the door.

"Of course he would come! I'm so insecure!" she scolded herself happily as she swung the door open, a broad smile on her face. There, on the porch, under the dim light stood Gray, Levy, Erza and Natsu.

Her smile faltered slightly as she asked; "Hey guys! Why are you all suddenly here?"

Gray exchanged an uneasy look with Natsu before smiling a bit; "Well, we thought we should treat the princess a bit, right? After all, it's her birthday!"

"Plus Gajeel had pity on me AND you, would you believe it, so he let me off the club work early." Levy added.

Lucy chuckled a bit and invited her friends in. Natsu had accidently caught a beetle in his hair, which unfortunately dropped on Erza's shirt.

"NATSU!" she yelled furiously.

The pink-haired boy immediately took cover in Lucy's kitchen while Lucy and Levy shook their heads at his stupidity.

"Here, I couldn't find you at break, so I have to give it to you now." Gray said, slipping a bracelet onto Lucy's slim wrist.

"Gosh, thanks Gray!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Come on! Time for cake!" Levy squealed, brandishing a huge box from outside Lucy's house, where she must have kept it, and heading for the living room.

Five minutes later, there was a vanilla cake sitting on the coffee table, seventeen candles on it. But Lucy stopped them from singing when they started—not that anyone was complaining if Natsu didn't sing.

"Wait! What about Sting? He's not here yet!" she reasoned with a heavy heart. Her friends looked at her with worry, but decided to wait.

When another half an hour passed, Gray stood up and said; "Luce, he's probably not coming. Let's cut the cake! We should celebrate you birthday anyway!"

Lucy nodded sadly, and blew the candles as they sang. Erza managed to stuff a LOT of cake into Natsu's mouth as punishment for the beetle, and Levy painted her face with white icing.

It was nearly night, but none of Lucy's friends were really eager to leave the small, cozy party. So she announced suddenly; "Hey, I'll be back in a few, okay? Just going to check at Sting's place once."

"Lucy," Erza started, but stopped at the look of utter desperation on her friend's face. "Come back soon." She finished with a sigh.

The blonde agreed, and snatched the very umbrella Sting had given her on their first meeting. It was pouring outside anyway.

She began to trudge along the streets, the rain managing to wet her boots. She neared Sting's house, and straightened her jacket nervously. There was hardly any noise in the area that day, and she matched her breathing with the rhythm of the rain.

She knocked twice on the door, but after a few minutes she knew the house was empty. She sighed, she couldn't go about looking everywhere in this weather, so she decided to head back.

Lucy suddenly heard some music wafting across from the end of the street, so she raised the umbrella, and peered at the place beyond the highway. From the looks of the stalls and lights, there was a fair going on there.

She was about to ignore it, when a familiar silhouette appeared across the road. It was Rogue, Sting's best friend. She had met him before, but he didn't really talk too much.

She hastily crossed the street, narrowly dodging a speeding bike, and went up to him.

"Rogue! Do you…know where Sting is?" she asked in a hurry.

The boy opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then closed it again, changing his words; "At the fair."

Lucy frowned a bit, but then she nodded; "Thanks so much!"

Rogue pursed his lips and started to walk away with a tight smile, stopping just once to say; "Happy Birthday Lucy. But I would rather you went back home instead of the fair."

Rogue remembered it was her birthday? She noted that and then became confused at the last part of his speech.

"Why not?"

But the black-haired boy had walked away. Lucy looked around for a bit, and then headed for the fair anyway. Once she was there, she noticed that there were long pieces of cloth, which stretched from one end of a building to another, thus creating some sort of shelter from the rain. They had red and white stripes, like a Christmas candy.

Hardly anyone was using their umbrella anymore, so she closed hers, and sighed. How in the world would she find Sting here? For some reason though, this place seemed familiar.

She didn't have to look for long, however. Lucy noticed a couple of boys coming out from behind a lone stall near a tall house, and heard them commenting; "She's not going to do man! But at least Eucliffe got a hot one!"

Lucy froze; did they just say Eucliffe? As the boys laughed and went to another stall, she raced behind the one from where they had exited. Then she realized with a smack.

This fair was being held at the same place where she had met Sting for the first time. And this was the alley, the very same one, where she had now run off to. The lights of the stall behind her flickered a bit, as she adjusted her eyes to the darkness.

"You sure know how to flirt," a girl's voice cooed.

"Can't help it with such a pretty girl, can I?" It was Sting's voice, dripping with sickly sweetness.

Lucy stood there, horrorstruck, as she watched Sting press his lips against a beautiful brunette girl. Emotions flooded the poor blonde as her feelings escalated from from betrayal, to shock, to grief and then to hatred.

"Sting?" she whispered. Sting's head snapped up as they made eye contact; tear flooded brown ones with surprised blue ones.

"It's my birthday." Lucy had no idea why she cried that out, but she just did. It was obvious he had forgotten, and if he hadn't, he sure wasn't paying much attention to the fact. So Lucy said those words out of the blue.

"I knew, I was going to—" Sting started quickly, but Lucy did something before he could get his false words out.

She was still clutching the black umbrella, and now she looked at it for a second, before throwing it with all her body strength at Sting.

It hit him squarely in the chest, but it hardly hurt him; after all, it was just an umbrella. It fell to the muddy ground, where it lay as Lucy closed her eyes, opened them again, and walked out from behind the stall. Once she was outside the fair, she began to quicken her pace.

Lucy ran over the streets, getting completely soaked to the skin. She finally reached her house, blinked back her angry tears, and went in.

It was Levy and Gray who got her first, and she cried her eyes out as she accepted Gray's embrace. Levy rubbed her shoulder, while Erza and Natsu looked like they would tear Sting apart, limb by limb.

No one had to speak a word; her friends all understood what had happened to Lucy. They just spent the night, trying to cheer her up in every way possible, trying to make up for the worst birthday present Lucy had ever received.

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**All finished! I hope it wasn't boring though, even it was really short. Thanks to everyone reading this! :) Please, do review if you can, and tell me your ideas about this. That will really mean a lot to me :)**


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